SANTA is on his way delivering gifts across the globe today on Christmas Eve, but how can you track Santa Claus using the NORAD Santa tracker?

With just hours to go until the big day, excited children can track the exact movements of Father Christmas using the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Google’s Santa trackers. He is travelling an estimated 510,000,000km on Christmas Eve, approximately 1,800 miles per second. Christmas Eve is the busiest time for Father Christmas as he needs to visit 390,000 homes per minute, or 6,234 per second.

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NORAD Santa tracker 2018: Father Christmas will visit more than 90 million on Christmas Eve (Image: Norad )

Colonel Harry Shoup - who became known as ‘Santa Colonel’ - answered the call and told his staff to answer the calls with an update on Father Christmas’s current position.

NORAD says: “Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first ‘Santa’ call and had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole.

“Indeed there were signs of Santa, and children who called in given an update on Santa’s position.

“Thus, the tradition was born.”

NORAD Santa tracker 2018: Santa starts in the South Pacific and travels across the world (Image: Norad )

Google is also rolling out its Santa Tracker once again this year, offering children a very similar experience.

Google has been operating their tracker for the past 13 years and their ‘Santa village’ opens on December 1.

The tracker goes live on Christmas Eve and allows children to track Santa and follow his progress with help from Google Maps.

The NORAD tracker is available on Apple, Android and Windows phone and online for free.

The Google tracker is available online, Android app and Android TV but there is no iOS app for Google’s Santa Tracker.